The Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet’s Mind

Escaping the confines of a vast city, a discontented sojourner steps into the countryside and claims his sudden liberty. “The earth is all before me,” he declares, seeking valleys and clear streams to shake off an “unnatural self.” From this moment of release, William Wordsworth traces the exact circumstances that formed his intellect and his art.

Across fourteen books of blank verse, the poem records a physical and intellectual itinerary. Wordsworth tracks his boyhood schooling, his term at Cambridge, and a walking tour through the Alps. He details his time in London and his consequential residence in revolutionary France, documenting how his early devotion to the natural world led to a broader love of humanity, and how his own imagination was impaired and eventually restored.

Composed between 1799 and 1805, the work was held in manuscript by the author for half a century and published posthumously in 1850. It stands as the central autobiographical epic of nineteenth-century English poetry.